Turkey tail price finally on the decline

Tue, 09/11/2018 - 12:49am

By

Samoa News staff

reporters@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — This photo shows delicious barbecued turkey tails, and the prices have finally dropped after three consecutive months of being on the rise at the time of many celebrations and events not only in American Samoa but in neighboring Samoa. The many events resulted in many purchases of this fatty food item that’s a Samoan favorite.

The price of turkey tails has “dropped by 2.8% for the first time since May 2018,” according to the Basic Food Index (BFI) for August 2018 compiled by the Commerce Department. Seven major food outlets were selected for this monthly survey.

Turkey tails were among the eight food commodities that contributed to the decline in the August BFI. The other food items surveyed for prices were chicken legs, rice, pork spare ribs, sausages, sugar and corned beef.

According to DOC, the cost of a 22-pound box of chicken legs continued to drop for the third consecutive month, with the greatest month-to-month price decrease of 6.3%. Additionally the cost of sugar, butter and sausages also continued to decline in August.

Food items with average prices increasing are fish, taro, ice cream, canned tuna, milk and mayonnaise. “The cost of fresh fish and ice cream have been on the rise since May 2018 and still continue,” according to the August BFI, which notes that taro increased by 2% last month and the rest with minimal percent increases of less than a percentage each.

The price of food items not specifically reference above remained constant from the previous month, DOC said yesterday in releasing the BFI.